RUSSIALINK: “About half of Russians confident Russia has status of great power – poll” – Interfax

MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) – About half of Russian citizens are confident that Russia maintains the status of a great power; about a quarter of those polled identified the army as one of the key factors of power, while 17% of respondents named the president’s activities, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center’s (VCIOM) poll, the results of which Interfax received on Monday.

“A half (49%) of our compatriots remain confident that Russia has the status of a great power, this share has slightly decreased since 2017 (57%),” the poll results said.

Over a third of Russians are confident that Russia would join the ranks of leading states in the next 15-20 years, while 11% of respondents disagree with this, sociologists said. The number of skeptics is higher among young people, – 16% among those aged 18-24, – and residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg – 17%, the VCIOM said.

According to the poll results, Russians believe that the pledge of power in view of the rest of the world is, first and foremost, the army (26% of those polled), the people (22%) and the president of the country (17%). “The independent policy, reserves of natural resources and the vastest area were also named among the factors of power,” the VCIOM said.

Almost one in five respondents (18%) believes that the country’s main success in the past 10-15 years is its Armed Forces. “Crimea’s return to Russia (12%), the 2014 Olympic Games (8%) were also named as the people’s top-3 of achievements,” sociologists said.

“The turning point in the recognition of the country’s greatness has happened only recently. Naturally, Russia’s strengthening in military and political aspects has played an important role, our respondents speak about that in the first place,” Stepan Lvov, the head of the VCIOM’s research department, said, commenting on the poll results.

The initiative nationwide poll was conducted among 2,000 Russians aged over 18 on April 24-25.